Team Herald
MARGAO: Citizens held a protest behind the ESI Hospital in Margao where they questioned if the shifting of a nullah by spending Rs 81 lakh was solely aimed at benefiting real estate development in the area.
Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) Convener Savio Coutinho along with prominent citizens of Margao including Loyola Rodrigues, Mathin Karol, Mahesh Naik, Damodar Onskar, Anthony Baptista and others explained the issue in detail.
Coutinho recalled how this issue was exposed a year ago when 30 trees were illegally and brutally chopped down, to make way for the construction, and accused the Forest Department of not acting on their complaints.
He further lamented that the Water Resources Department (WRD) did not act on their complaints and that the same disinterest was shown by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant as well. He accused Margao MLA Digambar Kamat of being behind the alleged corruption and alleged that the government authorities looking the other way was a way of rewarding Kamat for his defection into BJP.
Mahesh Naik warned the government and especially WRD Minister Subash Shirodkar to take immediate action against this ‘fraud’ and stop the unwarranted financial burden on the public exchequer. He stated that the failure on the part of the WRD Minister shall compel them to hold a dharna at Azad Maidan Panjim.
Another citizen Mathin Karol charged that the WRD claim that the construction of the nallah was to improve the hydraulics of the existing nallah is a blatant lie, and was an attempt to fool the people.
He pointed out that when there are right angle turns in the nallah under construction, the flow of water is bound to be slower, he said.
The citizens made a strong demand that not a single rupee from the government treasury should be paid for the work.
